Posts tagged ‘gascon desserts’

Duck fat is not only an indispensable cooking fat, it’s also excellent for baking. It can be substituted 1:1 for lard in any old fashioned recipe, you just need to keep it well-chilled while you work with it. Duck fat adds depth of flavor to baked goods, makes an especially tender pie crust, lofty Viennoiseries, and flaky cookies. Ariane’s father, Andre Daguin, made duck fat pepper biscuits in his chef days. He served them with chilled marinated peaches, the recipe of which is in his 1981 cookbook, Le Nouveau Cuisinier Gascon.

A holiday staple in the American Southwest, biscochitos are cookies made from lard and flavored with anise seed and orange zest. Since anise and orange are also common flavors in Southwest France, we thought we’d put our own spin on biscochitos by making them with duck fat. The cookies are delicious and quickly becoming a holiday favorite around the office. Give them a try!